My year of Travels - 2018

A Year-End Travel Reflection, written as a Prose Poem

A year-end reflection written at 30,000 feet, this piece took shape on the long flight home from Bali on New Year’s Eve, closing out a 26-day journey across Asia that began with a Kumon Instructors conference in Thailand. But it reaches beyond that single trip. It gathers a full year of journeys: an invitation to Germany, a drive through the Netherlands to see the tulips, my parents’ first visit to North America, a meditation retreat, and the people I met along the way. I originally set out to document the places I’d seen. In the end, it was the people who anchored me - their resilience, their kindness, and the stories they shared along the way.

Looking back

As I reflect on these words eight years later, I’m struck by how important it is for young people today to meet others whose journey looks nothing like theirs. Sometimes the most useful thing you can offer is not a perfect success story, but proof that life can take you somewhere far beyond what you ever planned.

My Year of Travels - 2018

💗 In February, I came across fantastic Chinese investment in the railway, highways and infrastructure in Nairobi, Kenya. The Chinese can get a two-year visa, no questions asked, for a ridiculously low fee. Marginal job creation for the locals. And, of course, poaching has gone up. Why wasn’t this a no-brainer decision for the powers that be? Why such short-sighted vision?

💗 Visiting Stuttgart and Austria this March, I came across young Punjabi men running away from the drug scene and violence back home. I sat and spoke with them, learned about their challenges and how they got illegal access to Europe, their dreams and struggles. Working as chefs and taking any job that came their way, they were already owning restaurants and hotels, making dreams come true far away from their homeland while sending money back to their families, yearning for a mother’s hug, a taste of home cooking, and surviving on nostalgic memories.

How easy it is to judge the immigrant who escapes from a war not of his own making, only to enter another war - surrounded by fear, judgement, ignorance and politicians looking for a vote. So very sad.

💗 In spring, I drove down the Autobahn at speeds of 260 km/h, both in a Ferrari and a Bentley. Rooftops down - what an exciting, exhilarating ride! Winds rushing through my hair and sunshine melting down upon me.

A dream-come-true ride it was. However, at the end of the journey, it was only about getting me from point A to point B. We all get there at our own speed, pace and style anyway.

💗 I got to see the tulips as they should be seen: in the Netherlands. A medley of colours! Orchids, tulips, poppies and hibiscus. Bougainvillea, roses, violets and azaleas.

Oranges, blues, greens and hues of all colours, sizes and shapes.

In awe and amazement at nature and her creativity, I danced with the colours and memorised their designs so I could escape into their beauty in my lucid dreams. Humbled and blessed to be a witness in spring.

💗 In the summer, my parents visited me for a brief few weeks. Their first trip to North America. Wherever we go, we take all of ourselves with us. There is no travelling to a better time, better health, a different mindset or abundance.

There is no pursuit to find happiness. Happiness is the way.

Otherwise, it will keep eluding us, fooling us that it is just around the next corner, the next deal, the next conversation. I learnt that life will keep throwing lessons at you. And if you absolutely refuse to learn and grow….. isn’t that a wasted opportunity?

💗 In early fall, I travelled to a 10-day meditation retreat. Rappelling 40 floors down a high-rise building on the Toronto harbourfront was the challenge: confronting my fear of heights head-on and pushing me over my edge.

Every day in life, we are forced to face our fears. My edge is different from your edge. On the other side of our fears lies our biggest growth.

Faced it. Let go and climbed down….. Batwoman style! Did it! Surmounted my fear!

💗 In Bangkok, I came across many Indians of Christian origin and asylum seekers from Pakistan running from religious persecution. Six years gone from home, files closed by the UN, no way to go back… ever… at the mercy of employers in a parallel black-market job industry.

What is it like to never be able to go back home? I cannot even imagine.

💗 In Bali, I came across a young man with an entrepreneurial spirit, also working as a tour guide and owning a 10-bed basic hostel. We shared business tips and how to tell the banks what they need to hear, and not what is. I could see myself in him and told him, “I just know you’ll own a hotel five years down the road.” His dreams were shining from his eyes….. eager to listen and learn.

Who knew my struggles and business experience would one day touch a young man as far away as Bali?

💗 In Malaysia, I visited the fourth-largest mosque in the world, the largest in Asia, located right across the street from a beautiful 18th-century church. So many Buddhist and Taoist temples surrounded them, too. Such pride in their coexistence.

I’m told you can have four different members of one family practising four different faiths and beliefs, sitting together at the same dinner table. How beautiful. We’re all heading to the same place….. using different highways, perhaps. Let’s keep it simple and between us and our Maker alone.

💗 In Indonesia, I was at the eastern end when the volcanic tsunami hit the western end. No warning given. Dreaming and dancing one minute, drowning the next. And we dare to plan years ahead…

I also learnt of Mr Sutopo Nugroho. He is a spokesman for Indonesia’s disaster management team and a reliable local name for releasing information on earthquakes, floods and landslides - and, just a few weeks ago, the tsunami that killed 400 people.

He is also dealing with a personal disaster of his own….. diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and given a few short years to live. Giving press releases while taking morphine for pain because his spine hurts, hardly sleeping because of the nature of his job when a crisis hits. His story is covered in the New York Times, too….. what amazing dedication.

💗 Ending the year with the impasse in the US regarding the border wall….. build it, I say. Let’s flip the model and keep the Americans in, locked away from the rest of the world, where they do nothing but strategise, create havoc….. and poach our animals.

And then I came across this lovely couple from the US who travelled with me for weeks….. with dreams just like you, me and the rest of us. And for now, so very embarrassed.

Who thought this day would ever come? Embarrassed and ashamed to be an American.

💕 Yes, my friends, I travelled around the sun, as did all of you….. 365 days. I’m a stronger, wiser, kinder woman because of all my journeys.

I have faith in the human race because of the goodness and kindness I saw. Beautiful smiles and innocent children in every city. We owe it to them… to leave the world a better place than we found it in.

I know it will all work out in the end because there are more believers and genuine people around than there are the troublemakers.

For you see the world as you see yourself, and if you do not carry the beautiful within yourself, then you will not discover it elsewhere.

There is a cosmic change and awareness in the air. You must be part of the solution if you don’t want to remain part of the problem.

Spread the love and kindness… 💕

Happy New Year to you and your families.

Sanjit Kaur, in flight.
31 December 2018